Events

Grand Canyon Plane Crash Site Designated Historic

GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK, AZ - MAY 20: The moon passes before the sun in the first annular eclipse seen in the U.S. since 1994 on May 20, 2012 in Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona. Differing from a total solar eclipse, the moon in an annular eclipse appears too small to cover the sun completely, leaving a ring of fire effect around the moon. The eclipse is casting a shallow path crossing the West from west Texas to Oregon then arcing across the northern Pacific Ocean to Tokyo, Japan. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)

File photo of the Grand Canyon. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — About 200 people have gathered for a ceremony marking the site of a 1956 airliner crash over the Grand Canyon as a national landmark.

Two commercial airplanes collided over the canyon in June 1956, killing all 128 people aboard in the deadliest aviation disaster of the time. The crash helped spawn major changes to improve air traffic control and radar systems and to create a federal agency to regulate it.

Grand Canyon National Park marked the designation of the crash site Tuesday as a National Historic Landmark in a ceremony overlooking the gorge where the wreckage was scattered over 1.5 square miles.

Park Rangers set up binoculars so that people could get a closer look at the buttes where the planes came crashing down. They also unveiled a plaque commemorating the crash.

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